News Students Back-to-School Tip Sheet
| Back-to-School Tip Sheet |
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| Wednesday, August 19, 2009 | |
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Note: For Carolina back-to-school facts, visit http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2785/68/ Returning and new students will move into residence halls this weekend (Aug. 21-23) before the start of fall semester classes on Aug. 25. Below are some related activities and developments tied to the beginning of the school year that may suggest photo and story ideas for area media. Administrators to greet arriving students as they move in Chancellor Holden Thorp and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Margaret Jablonski will greet students and their families from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday (Aug. 22) at Morrison Residence Hall, off Manning Drive near Paul Hardin Drive. Students will be moving in Friday (Aug. 21) and Saturday (Aug. 22), but Saturday will be the busier day. On Friday, South Campus residents with even-numbered rooms will move in. Saturday, all North Campus residents and South Campus residents with odd-numbered rooms are expected. Media note: For more information, call Rick Bradley, assistant director of housing and residential education, at (919) 360-2629. Annual FallFest block party set for Sunday night (Aug. 23) The University’s 13th annual FallFest, from 9 p.m. Sunday (Aug. 23) to 2 a.m. Monday (Aug. 24) on South Road, will feature opening ceremonies at 9 p.m. with the Marching Tar Heels student band and presentations by the following Carolina coaches, each with some of their players: Butch Davis, football; Sylvia Hatchell, women’s basketball; Karen Shelton, field hockey; and Jerod Haase, men’s basketball assistant coach. Chancellor Holden Thorp will emcee the opening of the event, which welcomes students to Carolina with dozens of games, two stages of entertainment by student groups; representatives of at least 250 student organizations; numerous University departments with information booths; games; inflatables; demonstrations by sports clubs; and plenty of free food. Last year an estimated 20,000 participants consumed 3,000 each of barbecue and submarine sandwiches; 4,000 corn dogs; 4,800 slices of pizza; 5,000 doughnuts; 7,000 bagels; 29,000 servings of soft drinks; and 50 gallons of coffee. Students will be able to have their pictures taken with some of the coaches and with the 2009 NCAA men’s basketball national championship trophy. Members of three local professional sports teams – the Durham Bulls baseball team, the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team and the Carolina RailHawks soccer team – will also be on hand. Bottles, cans, cardboard boxes and some paper from the event will be recycled, with a goal of 60 percent recycling, said B.J. Tipton, UNC’s solid waste program manager. “We are so pleased that we can welcome students back to campus with such a fun event that is also alcohol-free,” said Don Luse, director of the Carolina Union. “They can meet new people and find out how they can get involved in the campus community, all of which helps them get off to a good start in the academic year.” Media note: For more information, contact Luse at (919) 966-3120 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Alumni association welcomes students with free dinner, ice cream The UNC General Alumni Association (GAA) will welcome students to campus with several special events, including a free dinner, cool drinks and ice cream during move-in weekend. The New Students and Family Dinner, sponsored by the UNC Division of Student Affairs and the GAA, will be held at the Rams Head Dining Hall from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday (Aug. 21). Students and staff members from the Division of Student Affairs and the GAA will be available to answer questions during dinner. The next day, the GAA will host its annual open house at George Watts Hill Alumni Center on Stadium Drive. Free cool drinks and ice cream will be served from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday (Aug. 22). Other GAA welcome events, held at multiple locations, will include a relighting of the Morehead Patterson Bell Tower on South Road to signify the start of the school year at 8 p.m. Sunday (Aug. 23); a sunset serenade by student a cappella groups on the steps of Wilson Library (off South Road) from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday (Aug. 24); a light breakfast for students on the way to their first classes, offered in the breezeway of the alumni center from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Tuesday (Aug. 25); and an ice cream social especially for first-year and transfer students from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (Aug. 26) in the Frank Porter Graham Student Union Cabaret. Media note: For more information, contact Laura Sheppard at (919) 843-5115 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Nearly 70 percent of admitted North Carolinians chose to enroll at UNC The class enrolling this month at Carolina includes 3,127 students from North Carolina, nearly 70 percent of resident students who were admitted. Consistent with a five-year trend, they also include the very best students from within the state. •640 of the enrolling North Carolinians scored 1400 or higher (Critical Reading and Math combined) on the SAT – 43 percent of all the high school seniors statewide who scored at or above this level. •80 percent of the enrolling North Carolinians graduated in the top 10 percent of their high-school class, compared to 74 percent five years ago. •41 percent of the enrolling North Carolinians graduated in the top 3 percent of their high-school class, compared to 33 percent five years ago. •Nearly 70 percent (69.7) of all admitted North Carolinians chose to enroll – the highest yield among resident students in more than 10 years and an increase from 41 percent last year and from 36 percent five years ago. Overall, every key academic indicator for this year’s class has risen compared to last year. This year’s class also includes greater numbers of low-income students, international students and students whose parents do not hold a college or university degree. Covenant Scholars increase as more first-year students qualify for need-based aid Carolina has enrolled 519 new entering Carolina Covenant Scholars this fall as it saw a 22 percent increase in first-year students this year who qualified for need-based financial aid. Of the new Covenant Scholars, 428 are entering as freshmen, and 91 as transfer students. The Carolina Covenant , which provides a debt-free education to qualified low-income students from North Carolina and beyond, is a national model for making a college degree possible for qualified low-income students. As of fall 2009, nearly 1,800 UNC students are enrolled in the program. A recent study of the first class of Covenant Scholars also has found that the program helps students succeed in the classroom. Before the Covenant program was started in fall 2004, 4 percent of UNC’s entering freshmen were “low income” (200 percent of the federal poverty level). This fall, 11 percent of the freshman class is “low-income.” This change reflects both the demographics of the state, as well as the efforts of the Admissions Office to recruit and welcome these students. Admission to the University remains need-blind; students are first admitted and then designated as Covenant Scholars based on their financial circumstances. Advising corps spreading to 40 high schools The Golden LEAF Foundation has renewed its commitment to the Carolina College Advising Corps for the 2009-10 academic year, a move that will enable the program to serve two more high schools. Overall, the corps will have 19 advisers serving 40 high schools in 21 counties across North Carolina in 2009-10. Now entering its third year, the Carolina College Advising Corps – a program based in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at Carolina – helps low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students in North Carolina realize the goal of attending college. One of 13 partnerships in the National College Advising Corps (also headquartered at UNC), the Carolina corps places recent UNC graduates – many of them first-generation college students themselves – as college advisers in low-income high schools across the state. Advisers work closely with guidance counselors and other school personnel to create programs that meet the needs of the students in North Carolina high schools. Typically, an adviser works in two high schools, helping students research and apply to a broad range of two- and four-year schools, with the goal of finding the one that fits each individual best. During the 2008-09 school year, the Golden LEAF Foundation awarded the advising corps a one-year grant, enabling five advisers to work in 10 high schools. This year, an additional adviser in Edgecombe County will work at North Edgecombe High School and Tarboro High School. Along with the Golden LEAF Foundation, program funders include the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, the Reidsville Area Foundation, DavidsonWorks and the Rockingham County Education Foundation. Media note: For more information, call Jennie Cox Bell, program coordinator for the Carolina College Advising Corps, at (919) 843-7286. More back to school tips: UNC Health Care experts offer tips for dealing with health issues related to the return to school, including school phobia, separation anxiety and poor sleep habits: http://www.unchealthcare.org/site/newsroom/news/2009/August/back2school News Services contact: Susan Houston, (919) 962-8415, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |